


Cold Comfort

by The_mykie_show



Series: Tumblr requests and prompts [11]
Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (Comics), The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Gentle Negan (Walking Dead), Negan (Walking Dead) is an automatic warning, Negan Being Negan (Walking Dead), Nice Negan (Walking Dead), Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 14:43:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18345767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_mykie_show/pseuds/The_mykie_show
Summary: After seeing the pain he's caused by killing your best friend Negan tries to make you feel better.





	Cold Comfort

“You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry. Hell you’re all gonna be doing that.” his voice rang in your ears, only broken by the violent swing of his bat and the crunching of human flesh and bone. 

Glenn was your best friend, and he was gone. 

You feel the panic bubble up, tightening your chest, and closing off your throat. You quickly lose your breath, your vision going black at the edges. 

Negan straightens up from violently bludgeoning his victim. 

“What the fuck is her problem? She okay?” the crowd of people on their knees look at Negan with shock, did he actually care or was he looking to use this as fuel for more torment? Nobody answers him but he figures it out on his own pretty quickly. 

“Panic attack. Right.” he bends down to your level, making you hyperventilate even harder. 

“Alright sweetheart, I’m gonna need you to breathe. Come on deep breath in, now let it out nice and slow.” you’re ashamed to admit this about the man who just killed your best friend three feet from you, but his voice is soothing. 

You nod doing as he says, at first until you glance to your right and see Glenn’s body. The tears and hyperventilating comes back harder than ever. 

“Okay, come on, you’re coming with me.” he stands up dragging you to your feet by your arm. You cry harder, and fight him. 

“Stop fighting, I’m not going to hurt you.” he reassures you, dragging you towards the RV. 

“Why should I believe you?” you shout. “You just murdered Glenn!” 

His eyes soften “Was that his name?” your tears don’t slow but you nod. 

“And he was my best friend.” you choke. 

“I am sorry. Really, I don’t like this shit, despite how it may appear I fucking hate this shit. But you gotta understand-” he opens the RV door and pushes you inside “your people killed a shit load of my people in their sleep. Do you realize how fucked up that is? Those people had best friends too, some had kids. Rick orphaned a goddamn three year old, did you know that?” you shake your head, your breath catching in your chest again making you cough violently. 

“Sweetheart, you need to breathe. I’m sorry, I’m sorry for what I did to your friend, for snapping at you. For everything. Okay, breathe with me.” he puts his hands on your shoulders. 

You flinch away from him “please don’t hurt me.” you sob. 

“I’m not gonna hurt you. I don’t hurt women.” he reassures you. “That out there, that was a show, a display of power to put your fearless leader in his place so he doesn’t kill anymore of my people. Now if your people corporate I won’t harm a damn hair on anyone else’s head. Least of all you.” your chest hurts and you’re emotionally and physically exhausted so despite your anger, and pain, and fear you let him comfort you, let him help you through breathing exercises, and run his fingers through your sweaty hair. It’s clear based on the practiced ease he helps you with that he’s done this before. 

His hands never wander, he keeps his comforting touches innocent, something you’re grateful for. 

Once your breathing slows to normal and your vision straightens out you break the loaded silence. 

“Who was it?” he passes you a water bottle. 

“excuse me?” you reluctantly take a sip of the water. 

“The person in your life who had panic attacks. There was someone or else you wouldn’t know how to handle them so well.” you don’t look at him, instead focusing on the grains of wood in the tabletop in front of you. 

“My wife.” he admits. You’re surprised by how genuinely sad his voice sounds, and you don’t have to ask to know she’s dead. 

“I’m sorry.” you whisper. 

“I am too, truly. I wish you didn’t have to see that.” his hand falls on your shoulder again, this time you don’t flinch away. “I doubt it matters much, but if I would have known he was your best friend I would’ve picked someone else.” he’s right, it doesn’t matter, but you feel like you’ve built up a connection with the man over the few minutes you’d been in the RV with him, and you hope you can use it to protect your friends in the future. 

“You ready to go back out there?” he asks. 

“As long as the killing is over.” he zips his jacket up. 

“It’s over.” he reassures you, leading you back to your friends with a hand in the middle of your back. 

As soon as the RV door closes behind you Negan turns back into his load, dramatic persona. “Now that we’ve gotten that taken care of, back to you sorry shits. You’re free to go, bury your dead, mourn. But I’ll be back in a weeks time for compensation for all I lost to you fuckers.” he points Lucille right in Rick’s face, and then pushes you toward Michonne. 

He smiles at you “And maybe I’ll see you around, sweetheart.” 

“Alright, assholes, let’s roll!” Negan yells at his men who scramble to collect their things and get into the trucks. 

“Did he hurt you, Y/N?” Michonne asks when they’re out of ear shot. 

“No, no he was like a different person. He was nice to me.” she looks at you, clearly even more shocked then you are. 

You hope in a week when Negan comes back you can appeal to those better angels you saw in the RV, and find the man under the monstrous persona.


End file.
